Valuable
by Alona the Evil Authoress
Summary: Fluffy, fluffy, fluffy. KitexElk. Note the amazingly -low- rating. Fluff. Fluffy, fluffy, fluff. Remember that.


Beware. There has never been a more pointless and fluffier piece of pointless fluff than this. Ever. In the history of the world.  
  
~This fic is dedicated to Roko. It's only because she bugged me so much about it that I was able to write it.~  
  
~*~*~*~*~   
  
"So? What do you think? Should we go?"   
  
The pink haired girl considered this as she read over the message again. Kite looked on impatiently as she thought, deciding mentally on his party if Black Rose decided that going to this field was a good idea.  
  
"Let's do it!" she exclaimed several seconds later, swinging her sword around so that Kite had to lean back to avoid being hit with it.  
  
"Okay. Who else should we put in our party?" he asked, "I suppose we're going to need a wavemaster in case we need to be healed."  
  
"How about Mistral? Or Elk?" Black Rose suggested, and seeing that Kite did not appear happy at the prospect of inviting Mistral and that his eyes seemed to light up at the mention of Elk's name, continued. "Elk then?"  
  
He nodded, and instantly contacted Elk, asking him to join their party.  
  
"Um, all right," came the meek reply, and within a few seconds Elk was standing with them at the Chaos Gate. "So where are we going?" he asked timidly, "Can Mia come with us?"  
  
Kite sighed and smiled thinly at the blue-haired wavemaster. "There was a posting on the board for any powerful players to test their strength at a certain field. Black Rose thought I might be interested in going, but we needed another member for our party."  
  
"Oh," Elk murmured, "You should have picked Mistral, I'm no good."  
  
Kite shook his head slowly, letting his breath out with a low hiss. "Look. I chose you to be in our party. Doesn't that mean that I prefer you to Mistral? Now would you stop thinking you're so useless?" Kite finished in an annoyed voice bordering on a screech.  
  
Elk, taken aback, leaned heavily on his staff and whimpered, red eyes aimed at the ground.  
  
"Kite, stop yelling at him!" snapped Black Rose, holding up a hand as if to hit Kite, "Can't you see he's terrified?"  
  
"Oh," Kite gasped, noticing for the first time that Elk looked completely petrified. "Oh. Elk, I'm sorry. I just don't like how little self-confidence you seem to have. You're quite valuable to us when you believe in yourself."  
  
"Valuable… to you?" asked Elk, looking up into Kite's eyes shyly.  
  
"Yes, valuable. Valuable to me, and Black Rose, and any party lucky enough to have you in it. So stop beating yourself up, okay?" Kite smiled gently, having realized that his previous approach had done more harm than good.  
  
"Oh. Okay." Elk glanced away again, but not before Kite caught something that looked oddly like regret passing over his features. But before he could confirm it, Elk began speaking again in a slightly bolder tone. "Let's get going then!"  
  
"Great idea!" Kite agreed. He entered the key words provided by the board and the three of them warped to the field.   
  
Once there, the three of them glanced around. The field was grassy and small puffy clouds flitted across the sky. There did not appear to be any magic portals anywhere in site range, and further exploration turned up nothing.   
  
"Nothing!" Black Rose cried, exasperated, "There's nothing here! No powerful monsters not even any weak ones! Let's just gate out of here, maybe we'll find something else to do."  
  
"Yes," Kite agreed, "And we should report that hoax too so that no one else comes here by mistake."  
  
"Kite…?" Elk started, shifting his staff from hand to hand nervously. Kite directed his gaze towards the wave master, nodding for him to speak. Elk cleared his throat and went on. "I think… maybe the strong monster's are in the dungeon? The level of this place is pretty high…" he trailed off, not having met Kite's gaze.  
  
"Of course. Black Rose," Kite said as he turned to her, "I think Elk's right. The field is level thirty-two. It's impossible for there not to be a single monster anywhere. Right?"  
  
"I guess," she huffed, and marched towards the dungeon's entrance. Kite and Elk looked after her, then at each other. Elk let out a small noise that may have been a giggle and Kite smiled, amused at Black Rose's inability to accept that someone other than herself was correct.   
  
"So? Are you two coming, or are you just going to stare at each other all day?" Black Rose yelled from the entrance to the Dungeon, startling both the other members of her party.   
  
Kite jumped. "What? We weren't… That is…" He looked at Elk, eyes pleading for help, but the wave master had turned away and was beginning to march to the entrance along with Black Rose. The Twin Blade had nothing to do but to follow them, wondering just why he had seemed to see a rather embarrassed look on Elk's face before he tuned away.   
  
Despite Elk's prediction, there were no monsters in the Dungeon. After exploring it in its entirety, the three were forced to exit and gate out, back to the Root Town.  
  
"Well, that was a waste of time," Black Rose droned, "Can I leave now, Kite? I have better things to do."  
  
"Fine. Leave. Send an e-mail to the administrators about this, why don't you?" Kite muttered lightly, concentrating more on how quickly Elk was sprinting in the other direction, as far away from the Chaos Gate as he could get. Curious, and remembering that he had found some aromatic grass earlier, Kite ran off after him, fully intending to give Elk the grass and sneak in a question about what was the matter. However, once he had followed Elk to the edge of the town and watched the wave master staring despondently out over the clear blue sky, he decided the bribery would not work. He could present Elk the aromatic grass after finding out what the problem was.  
  
"There's nothing wrong," Elk whispered as Kite approached, making the Twin Blade jump. He didn't realize that Elk had known he was being followed. But Elk went on, making Kite decide that he was speaking to himself. "There's nothing wrong, there's nothing wrong," Elk kept muttering, almost completely assuring Kite that it was the biggest lie he had ever heard.   
  
"Elk."  
  
The wave master whipped his head around sharply, having thought that he was alone. "Oh! Kite. It's you. What is it?"  
  
"You don't look so good. What's wrong?" Kite asked softly, stepping slightly closer to Elk.   
  
"Nothing. Nothing's wrong. I was just… thinking about that field. Maybe… it wasn't a hoax after all?"  
  
"What?" Kite asked, completely confused. "Of course it was a hoax, there was no way at all to test our strength there."  
  
"Maybe there was. Just not the type of strength we assumed it meant," Elk murmured, more to himself than to Kite. Kite, for his part, was completely confused. What other strengths were there but the physical and magical strengths they had been expecting would be tested? Before he had time to think about it any more, Elk walked past him and called over his shoulder in a slightly strained voice, "I'd like to go back to that field, to show you what I mean. It was nice there. Peaceful."  
  
Kite could only nod, following the other back to the Chaos Gate where they once again warped to the advertised field. It was the same as before, empty, calm, and quiet.   
  
"So… what kind of strength do you think this field was supposed to test?" Kite asked after a few moments of silence. It wasn't truly silence: calm, haunting music was ringing across the entire field.  
  
"Emotional strength. The strength of our wills, maybe," Elk whispered. He sat on the tall grass, hugging his knees, and watching a large fluffy cloud go by slowly. "Maybe it's a game. If we report it as a hoax, we loose."  
  
"I guess that's possible," Kite mused, also sitting down next to Elk, "But wouldn't that be illegal?"  
  
"Why?" Elk asked, "Just because they didn't give the specifics about what strength it was to test, doesn't mean that they did was wrong. Right?" He turned large eyes on Kite, waiting patiently for his response. The Twin Blade was forced to consider this for a long time before slowly nodding, wondering at the back of his head why Elk was being so much more outspoken than usual.   
  
"I guess… it's allowed. But that doesn't mean it was nice."  
  
"No, it wasn't nice. But sometimes nice isn't always good."  
  
"Elk? Why did you have to bring me back here to explain this?" Kite thought to ask, having been too preoccupied previously to consider it. "Couldn't you have told me back in the root town?"  
  
"I… that is… I wanted to us to be alone," Elk whispered quietly, eyes aimed steadily at a spot of grass.   
  
"What?" Kite asked softly, more confused than he could remember being for a while. Elk had wanted to be alone with him previously to ask for his bracelet, but that didn't seem to be the case this time.   
  
"I wanted to be alone. With you. Kite? Remember when you said I was valuable?" Elk asked, still staring at the same spot of grass.  
  
"Yes…."  
  
"Did you mean it?"  
  
"Of course! Why would I lie?" Kite asked, surprised.  
  
"Oh! I didn't mean I thought you were lying," Elk hurriedly assured him, "I must meant… maybe you were just saying it to make me feel better."  
  
"No, that's not it. I mean, I hate to see you miserable, but… it's the truth. There are so many battles I could never have won if you hadn't been there. You're one of the most valuable assets I have in "The World"."  
  
"An asset? That's all?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Are we friends? I mean… am I valuable as… as a friend?" Elk asked, eyes still fixed on the ground.  
  
"Yes! Of course! But…that's not what's bothering you… not really…" Kite continued as he was that Elk's expression only became more pained, "Elk? Look at me, please…" As a response, Elk only turned his head further away. Kite, determined as ever, reached a hand over to Elk's cheek, turning his head slowly, forcing him to meet his eyes. "Now. What's really bothering you?"  
  
"It's just… I… you… It's silly, really," he whispered, "I mean, "The World" isn't real, and I know that we shouldn't really feel anything while we're here… but … when I'm around you… I feel different. Like I matter."  
  
"But Elk, don't you feel like you matter around Mia? You're great friends with her."  
  
"It's not the same. Being around Mia makes me feel… weak. Like I need someone to depend on. You… make me feel like others depend on me. And that's something I'm not used to feeling." Closing his eyes slightly, Elk brought his own hand over Kite's, which was still holding his cheek. "Being with you… makes me happy."  
  
"Oh," Kite gasped, shocked at Elk's words and actions.   
  
"Kite? Please don't leave. I like feeling happy." The wave master leaned sideways, resting his head on Kite's shoulder. At a loss, Kite wrapped an arm gingerly around Elk, tightening his grip slightly as he realized how comfortable he felt.   
  
They sat there a while longer, simply enjoying each other's company and the feeling of closeness and security that was washing over them.   
  
-It feels good winning battles- thought Kite, -and knowing that I have so many friends. But this… this feels even better.- Suddenly, he remembered the aromatic grass he had been meaning to give to Elk.   
  
"By the way," he said, reaching his free hand into his satchel and retrieving the grass, "I have something for you." He presented Elk the aromatic grass, hoping he would like it.  
  
"Oh. Thank you so much.. I.. don't know what to say…"  
  
"Don't say anything, then," Kite suggested softly, and impulsively kissed Elk's cheek lightly. Within seconds, the wave master's cheeks had turned a violent shade of red, and he let out a sound that Kite clearly identified as a giggle.   
  
"I guess I won't," Elk agreed with a smile, and leaned forward, brushing his lips against Kite's.   
  
"You know what? You're right," Kite whispered as Elk leaned away, "Feeling happy is great."  
  
"Yeah, yeah it is."   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Yay. It's done. Wasn't it fluffy beyond all that is fluffy? I may have lost my track in the last few paragraphs, I'm a little rusty at fluff. x.x  
  
-Alona 


End file.
